JacquesCousteau

Thank you, @Paul Le Wol, @Jim Lad, @Keith Black, @Thukydides, @Knocklouder, @Glen McGuire, for the kind comments! As much as I enjoyed planking the hull, it's fun to now move on to other tasks. First up, I applied a bit of filler to cover the joints between the transom and the subdeck, and between the keel and sternpost (so as to later scribe a more accurate false joint, for the latter). I then began work on the covering boards. First, I marked a line 1/8-inch inboard from the edge of the hull. I did this by holding a short length of mechanical pencil lead against a bit of 1/8-inch wide scrap and running the scrap along the edge. I then used tape to take down templates for the covering boards, as seen below. I focused on getting the covering boards properly shaped inboard, as the edge would be sanded flush with the hull. The photo below shows the two fore covering boards in place and shaped, although I need to fine-tune the scarf joint at the aft end and add a filler piece at the bow (which will be covered by the bowsprit in any case). I also began work on the guarda playa--the "bumper" plank around the turn of the bilge. This was used to protect the hull while the lancha was beached for loading/unloading by low tide. Although not all lanchas had one (based on photos), enough did, and the guarda playa is an interesting enough detail that I wanted to include it in my build. Below: The guarda playa is visible around the turn of the bilge on the closest vessel to the camera. Source: http://ceph-puerto-montt.blogspot.com/2009/02/album-del-recuerdo-imagenes-de-nuestra_22.html José A. Garnham's drawings of lanchas suggest that the guarda playa was either made with a special extra-thick plank, or by simply adding a separate plank outside the rest of the hull planking. I chose the second option and will be using a bit of 1/16x1/8-inch strip to make them. First I used a ruler to check where on the hull the guarda playa should be located. This detail isn't included in the plans, so I just went with what looked reasonable in terms of length, making sure each end was in line with the frame lines signaled by the hull plank butts. I then cut the strip to length, curving each tip a bit. Next up: to finish the covering boards, glue on the guarda playas, and start work on the hatches before planking the deck.

Very interesting choice of a build, I'm looking forward to following along! I'm sure it will make for a great (and very large!) model. It looks like you've made a good start with the former.

Very nice job!

You're off to a good start!

Thank you! The hull is now fully planked. The final planks were the trickiest. If any of the other planks were a hair too thin on one side, it wasn't really a problem because they only had to run alongside the previous plank. But these final planks needed to fit properly on both sides. Moreover, it's not possible to place them alongside the previous plank to get a sense of where there are high and low spots while shaping them, making it much harder to fit. As a result, I needed to redo half of them. The bow plank, ready to be glued: The very final plank needed to be redone. Below, I've indicated a number of spots where there was too much of a gap--maybe I could have just filled it, but I wanted to get it right: After redoing it, there was just one spot with a slight gap, much smaller than on the first attempt and eminently repairable with filler. This I could live with: To glue it in place, I used rubber bands and shims, except at the transom where I had to just hold it for a little while: I've seen the final plank referred to as the "whiskey plank," although maybe pisco would be more appropriate for a Chilean vessel. I'll have to celebrate tonight. In any case, after trimming the ends and giving the hull a preliminary sanding, here's where it stands: Overall, I'm pleased with my decision to use a single layer of planking in 1/32‐inch basswood, which I hadn't been sure about at the beginning. 1/16‐inch wood would have been much more difficult to bend at twist, especially at the lower bow, and if I had planned on double-planking, I would have felt like it was pointless once I reached this stage (but then I would have had to deal with the gap in the rabbet). That said, I can see a couple areas for improvement in the future. First, while I think I did a good job of keeping the planking symmetrical at the stem, I wasn't checking past that. So, one plank on the port bow ended up having a bit of a bulge just past the stem, as seen below, which (if you look at the bow-on photo above) did slightly throw off the strakes above it relative to the starboard side. It's not like I'm going to redo that plank now, but it's a reminder to keep an eye on symmetricality beyond just the stem. Second, I noticed that there are a few low points on the hull on each side of plank butt joints, especially near the bow. This seems to be because, when bending the plank into place, it tends to run straighter/flatter between the adjacent bulkhead and the butt location than it would if it continued, as the wood would take more of a curve between the bulkheads in the latter case. (If that makes any sense). I think the only way to deal with this would be to cut planks one bulkhead overlength and then cut to size after bending, but this is complicated to do. In the future, I may give it a try for planks at the bow, at least, as that's where the wood is most curved and the issue is most visible.

Good catch on the stern! It's fascinating to see the different construction methods used here. I really shouldn't be, but I'm surprised by how well the varnished paper mimics wood.

Thanks for your input! That's the option I'll be going with. I realized a mistake in the deck beam locations. While I followed the bulkheads locations, the beams would actually be located in slightly different spots. In particular, based on looking at deck beam locations for other vessels, there was probably a beam at the fore and aft end of the main hatch. There would also be two beams around the mast, as seen in the photo by Carlos Vairo below: Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas With this in mind, I marked out different beam locations. This will also give me much greater flexibility with setting up the plank butt shift pattern. One thing I've noticed from photos is that, when they're visible, the deck plank butt locations on adjacent and close-to-adjacent planks are often pretty far distant from each, which requires more beam locations than I initially had. Planking the hull continues, with a single strake left on either side.

Nice work, you won't regret redoing those planks. I also had trouble at that particular bulkhead and found I had to fair it a bit more.

Looks like you're off to a good start!

Looks like you're off to a nice start, the deck looks great! Small workboats like this leave a lot of room for personalization by adding equipment and other details, if you're so inclined. I'm not certain, but I believe that at least some similar Billings kits (like the Bayard) are based on vessels included in Souvenirs de Marine by Paris, so you may be able to find a few relevant details there.

After returning to Mexico City, I've been able to make more progress. First up, I applied filler to a couple slightly low points where the sheer plank met the subdeck. I then marked out the top of the bulkheads (except toward the bow and stern) so that I can properly set the deck butt shift pattern. I recognize that the bulkheads aren't necessarily accurate to where the deck beams would actually be placed, but the spacing seemed like a good approximation at least. Speaking of the deck, I've been thinking of how to make and color it. The clearest images of the decks of working lanchas come from Carlos Vairo's photos from the early 1980s, several examples of which are below. As can be seen, there's some variation, but a dark brown or gray brown color seems appropriate. Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas In terms of materials, I am running low on my stocks of 1/32‐inch thick basswood (which I cannot seem to find available in Mexico), so I was thinking of using coffee stir sticks, of which I've accumulated quite a few in widths of 3/16- and 1/8-inches, which seem to be roughly appropriate in scale based on Vairo's photos (and could well represent the variable deck planking widths that have been pointed out earlier). From what I can tell, these are made of birch, which is a fairly common modeling wood. That said, I had a couple concerns. First, how to best go about getting the right color? Second, I'll still need to make the covering boards out of basswood, so would there be too much of a contrast with the birch deck? I made a few test deck patches to check, seen below. The one at left has a basswood plank on the left side and was stained with a Minwax cherry stain pen, then given washes in dark brown and black acrylic. The second from the left also includes a basswood plank on the left side and was stained with Sayer Arce stain (which, unlike the Minwax, is readily available here) before also receiving brown and black washes. Third from left is just basswood and also was stained with Sayer Arce, but had a different quantity and proportion of brown and black washes applied. The rightmost one (just birch) was stained with a mix of Sayer Arce and a gray stain, before having the same washes applied. Overall, I don't think the difference between the basswood and the birch is overly noticeable if I go with basswood covering boards and a birch deck. The birch grain is a little more visible, though, which I'm not crazy about but which I don't think is bad per se. As far as the coloration, while I do like the cherry, I have my doubts as to whether a single stain pen would be enough, and I think the arce looks good as well. I am currently thinking of using the mixed gray and brown stains and then applying washes a bit unevenly in order to represent the wear patterns seen in Vairo's photos. Let me know if you have any thoughts! I also trimmed the sternpost and keel to their proper length and angle. I further marked out where the bottom of the sternpost should join the keel timber. Next I plan on filling the current joint between the two, sanding smooth, and carving a false joint (which ideally will be barely visible under the paint. Finally, I'm nearly done with planking. The gap is narrow enough now that clamping is becoming a challenge.

Nice job dealing with the challenges you're facing. The Spanish Windlass idea is something I'll have to try myself. Out of curiosity, how far apart are the bulkheads? They look quite widely spaced, which seems to me like it may make planking (not to mention attaching the subdeck) more difficult.

Nice work, it looks great!

Congratulations, well done!

Nice work, and very well done on the dory as well!

Thanks, all, for the kind comments! I suspected as much during the Half Hull build, but I think planking may be my favorite part of modeling. Glad to hear that people are enjoying the history behind this vessel type, too. We'll see if I can add more as the build progresses, I enjoy research and feel it's important to understand not just how a boat was built, but how and why it came to be. Gary, I think "charming" is a good word for it. For such a beamy, full-bodied, and rather squat vessel, the hull still has a bit of grace to it, I think. A couple more strakes have been added. Now I'll be packing up the hull for travel back home, and I'll be finishing planking there.

Nice work, very well done! If you haven't already looked, you might want to check out existing build logs--I know there are some for the Bounty Launch and the Sloup, at least. They might give you an idea of particular challenges of each.

Looking forward to following this build! Depending on how you'd like to make it, there are a lot of options to personalize this as a fishing boat or as a yacht. Either way, I've had some luck in finding old photos of Friendship Sloops via the Penobscot Maritime Museum's digital collections, although the search function is a bit unwieldy. See here, for instance, for photos tagged as Friendship Sloops: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/search-interfaces/search/digital-collection/0/1/1/1?rq[0]=8639&ip=1

Fantastic job, definitely something to be proud of!

Thanks, @wefalck, @Keith Black, and @palmerit for your comments, and to many others for the likes! I've made further progress on the planking, completing the lower band and having just one strake left in the upper band. At this point, I decided that I wil try for semi-irregular plank widths in the central band, so as to better match the photos I've seen of actual lanchas. As noted earlier, many seem to have had slightly slimmer planks around the bilge. To represent this, I took the remaining space--the central band plus the last strake of the upper band--and marked it out for six planks instead of five, reducing the average width relative to the other bands. I considered trying to mark out different widths within this new, expanded central band, but realized this would be tricky as I would need to set up matching irregular proportions across all bulkheads. Instead, I marked the new strake locations evenly, but I will fiddle with the plank widths by making some strakes just under the markings and others just over them.

Congratulations on a job very well done! This is a really exceptional build, fantastic craftsmanship and a great eye for detail. The photos of the whole model really showcase how well everything comes together. Sometimes I find myself favoring more of a weathered look, but this model does a great job at showing how a clean build can highlight the elegance of even a relatively simple workboat. It was a true pleasure to follow along as you built this. Any ideas of what you're building next?

Excellent work, the planking looks great!

Welcome! The Provencale seems to be a good starter kit, and doing a build log would be very useful for getting advice. If you haven't already seen it, HakeZou's build log does a good job of showing how it comes together, as well as signaling some challenges. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/24350-la-provençale-by-hakezou-finished-artesania-latina-120-scale/#comment-716193

By now, the planking is about one-third of the way complete. I've added three out of four strakes in the lower band and one out of four in the upper. So far, the planking is coming along all right. With the rather beamy and full shape of the hull, the planks in the lower band have all been very curved and the foreward planks have all had a pronounced twist, which has posed a challenge to getting a good fit. That said, the hull will be painted, which--compared with the NRG Half-Hull--gives me a little more flexibility with any minor issues, as I can just use filler if there's a tiny gap. I've been following the same planking methods as on the Half-Hull. To briefly recap: First, I use a bit of semi-translucent Tamiya masking tape to mark the shape of the plank. Then, I put it on a sheet of 1/32-inch-thick basswood and cut it out slightly oversize. I then dry fit, noting high points along the joint with the previous plank and sanding them down a little at a time, checking and rechecking until it fits well. Then I adjust the outer edge to fit the marks on the bulkheads until everything fits well, at which point the plank is soaked, clamped to dry in place, and then glued once dry. It's a pretty slow but meditative process that I enjoy, although if you're not careful it can be easy to accidentally oversand and ruin the plank, as I did here. So far I have not made a final decision about whether to add irregular-width planks further along. At the moment, I'm leaning toward no, because I think it will be very hard to see on the completed model, has a high chance of looking wrong, and would add complexity to lining out the strakes. I also have to admit that I think I'm doing a better job at consistent plank width so far on this build than on the Half-Hull, and it feels like a bit of a shame to purposely throw it off. I've also decided that I'll include a slight irregularity in the plank butt shift pattern. From the image of the Marisol shown a few posts ago, it looks to me like there's not necessarily a consistent plank butt shift over the entirety of the hull. I've determined that I can change up a strake in each band--especially because the strakes are longer in the upper band, allowing more possibilities--in order to include a bit of irregularity and suggest that these vessels were planked in somewhat idiosyncratic ways without looking too "off".

Excellent work! The decision to use other woods and leave them with a natural finish really worked out well, it's a striking result and definitely a very unique variation on a frequently-built kit. Looking forward to your next builds!